LinuxWorld: Closing down OpenMail: It’s not about profit

“Hewlett-Packard fears Microsoft more than it loves
OpenMail.”

“Hewlett-Packard has decided to stop development on its HP
OpenMail server after release 7.0, although HP says it will
continue to support customers of versions 6 and 7 for the next five
years. No doubt HP hopes its customers will perceive that decision
as being driven by the fact that the OpenMail division has not been
profitable, a situation complicated by HP’s inability to find a
satisfactory buyer for the division.”

“I smell a rat. Here’s why. One day in August 1999, I walked up
to the Hewlett-Packard booth at the LinuxWorld Expo and discovered
that HP OpenMail was a better Exchange than Microsoft Exchange. The
overwhelming potential for OpenMail was so obvious that I pressed
an HP representative as to why HP did not actively market OpenMail
as a drop-in replacement for Exchange.”

“His answer earned HP the “bury the gold” award in my January
14, 2000, column in InfoWorld. As I said back then, HP knew it was
sitting on a potential gold mine but was afraid to dig. HP OpenMail
runs on a variety of platforms, including Linux. OpenMail is
faster, more scalable, more stable, less expensive, and more
intelligent in performing calendar and other synchronization tasks
than Exchange. But HP refused to market OpenMail energetically as
an Exchange replacement because it was more interested in
protecting its relationship with Microsoft.”

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